THR has reported that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to star in I Helped Destroy People, a thriller involving the FBI, racial and religious profiling, and a whistleblower.
Based on the New York Times article by Janet Reitman, I Helped Destroy People tells the story of Terry Albury, “an FBI agent who was tasked with infiltrating Muslim communities post-9/11 as the only Black agent at his bureau. However, he grew so disillusioned by the War on Terror and what he saw as the agency’s violations of its rules on domestic terrorism that, after 16 years and commendations signed by directors Robert Mueller and James Comey, he began leaking classified documents to the press, hoping to expose a system that abused innocents.” Albury was eventually apprehended in a sting operation and was handed a four-year prison sentence after being convicted under the Espionage Act. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will star in the thriller which is being scripted by Hand of God creator Ben Watkins. Michael B. Jordan is also onboard to produce the film through his Outlier Society banner alongside Elizabeth Raposo with Abdul-Mateen II also producing through his House Eleven10 banner.
“There is this mythology surrounding the war on terrorism, and the F.B.I., that has given agents the power to ruin the lives of completely innocent people based solely on what part of the world they came from, or what religion they practice, or the color of their skin. And I did that,” Albury said in the article. “I helped destroy people. For 17 years.“
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will next be seen starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González in Michael Bay’s Ambulance. Gyllenhaal plays a life-long criminal who talks his adoptive brother (Abdul-Mateen II) into taking part in a multi-million dollar bank heist. When the robbery goes wrong after an LAPD officer is shot, the brothers are on the run in an ambulance along with an EMT and the officer they shot as their hostages. Ambulance is set to hit theaters on April 8, 2022.
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